"The Lord Enters" Sermon: Isaiah 3:1-4:1

“The Lord Enters”

[Isaiah 3:1-4:1]

April 15, Second Reformed Church

            In the previous section of Isaiah, we saw that God is enraged at the sin of idolatry – and idolatry means putting anything in God’s place – every time we sin, we commit idolatry.  And the warning is given, that on the last day, when Jesus returns, the Glory of God will be apparent to all people – and the elect of God will be filled with joy, while those who never believe will be so terrified that they will try to bury themselves alive in an attempt to escape God.

            In our text this morning, God reveals what is going to happen to Judah as the Lord enters into judgment upon them – culminating about two hundred years later when Judah is destroyed and her people are taken into captivity in Babylon.

            Yet, we ought not just receive this as what happens to Judah, since God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever – as we are part of a society – members of a society – that turns away from God. God will discipline and punish us in clear and subtle ways.  What we see in our text this morning is God’s judgement on a society that doesn’t want Him – that turns away from Him (Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, 59).

            First, God takes away solid leadership from a society that rejects Him.

“For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply, all support of bread, and all support of water; the mighty man and the soldier, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder, the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor and the skillful magician and the expert in charms.”

God tells Judah that He is going to take away their food and their water.  He is going to take away all the people that they looked to as leaders of the society.  And we should note that Judah considers both legitimate and illegitimate persons to be leaders in the society.

One of the things that most shocked me during the presidency of Ronald Regan was when I learned that his wife, Nancy, regularly consulted a fortuneteller, and, apparently, passed on the information to her husband.

God tells them that if their society puts their hope in their agricultural prosperity, in their politicians and military, in magicians and fortunetellers, God will take them away.  And remember, God does these things in the hopes that repentance will occur.  God removes the false supports of a society – or those in our lives, so we will turn to Him as the Only One Who is truly able to support us in every way that we need.

Who are what does our society put its hopes in?  What do we look to as the strength and the support of our country?  Is Jesus secondary – meant to support our supports?

Remember the prodigal son:  it wasn’t until his money was gone and his friends were gone and he found himself in an awful place to work and live that he turned around.

Judah has to be destroyed before she will repent.  What will it take for us?

Second, God gives immature leaders to a society that rejects Him.

“And I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them.”

Our text does not meant that children – age-wise – will rule over them, but those who are immature emotionally and intellectually will rule over them.  Once Babylon slaughters Judah and takes the people into captivity, they set up a puppet king that would do their will – someone who was but a child – ignorant and childish.

Can we think of any leaders – not just a president – who were childish?  Have we received men and women from God in the high position of political office – as rulers over us – who were more concerned with their image and sexual conquests and how much money they could make and putting the blame for their failures on everyone else than doing their jobs? There are many more than just one leader like that, aren’t there?

This is a reminder to pray for our leaders – to pray that God will give us leaders who are wise and stable – even those who fear God and believe in Jesus, our Savior.  We are to pray for the leaders we have been given, because God has given them to us for a reason – to bless us or punish us, or both.

And, if any of us have been gifted by God for leadership – especially in government in this context – we ought to pray for them and encourage them in their education and pursuits.  Maybe you have been called to serve in this way – or someone in your family?

Third, God allows there to be an “age gap” in a society that rejects Him.

“And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow and every one his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the despised to the honorable.”

God says, “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12, ESV).

And, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’ (this is the first commandment with a promise), ‘that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.’ Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:1-4, ESV).

Children are to honor and respect their parents, even if they don’t always agree with them.  They are to look to those who are older for wisdom and guidance in the world, even if they don’t always agree with them.

But there comes a mind-set in a society that rejects God that it is the youth who have the wisdom, and they turn against those who have true wisdom and put in place the ideas of those who have no knowledge or experience.

Have you experienced this?  Children rebelling against their parents, telling them they don’t know what they are doing, standing up to politicians, saying it is time for those who have no education and can’t vote to make policy based on their ignorance.

Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, was made king, and the people came to him and asked that he lighten the burden that his father, Solomon, put on them.  Rehoboam went to the old men – the sages – and asked for their advice, and they told him to lessen their burdens and he would be loved and supported.  Then Rehoboam went and asked his high school buddies who were so excited that they were now buddies with the king, and they told him to make things all the more difficult for the people, to build up his wealth and power.  Rehoboam said, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions” (I Kings 12:14b, ESV).  And he lead the people in wickedness and sin for seventeen years and then he died.

If we love our children and our society, we will pray for them and for parents and other caregivers as they attend to the awesome responsibility of raising children.  And we will heed the words of Solomon:  “Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him” (Proverbs 13:24, ESV).

            Fourth, God allows for values to be despised in a society that rejects Him.

“For a man will take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying: ‘You have a cloak; you shall be our leader, and this heap of ruins shall be under your rule’; in that day he will speak out, saying: ‘I will not be a healer; in my house there is neither bread nor cloak; you shall not make me leader of the people.’”

We see two things here:  a person is forced to hold a position of authority based on the way he looks, and this person refuses to take the position of leadership that is given to him.

In a society that rejects God, it doesn’t matter if the person to be elected is capable or willing.  It doesn’t matter if that person is a moral, honest person.  What matters is how he looks – if the people will accept him.  (Though we see that in a society that rejects God, no one wants to take the responsibility for governing the people.)

We remember the calling of Saul to be the first king of Israel – why did the people choose him?  “There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becorath, son of Aphiah, a Benjaminite, a man of wealth. And he had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people” (I Samuel 9:1-2, ESV).

“Look at Saul!  He is handsome, and taller than any of us!  He will make a great king!”

God breaks out in anguished wonder and says:

“For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their deeds are against the LORD, defying his glorious presence. For the look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves. Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds. Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him. My people—infants are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, your guides mislead you and they have swallowed up the course of your paths.”

Like a prosecutor in the courtroom, God lays out the sins of the people and calls on the court to hear Him on why the society has been and must be judged, if there is to be any hope for the elect of God – the remnant that He will bring out of captivity.

            Paul writes to the young minister, Timothy, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (II Timothy 4:3-4, ESV).

            Paul writes Timothy about a time – soon to come – when people will be completely self-absorbed and invent their own realities.  How much more so are we in these days now?

            Why don’t we pray?  What keeps us from coming together during other times of the week to pray?  Do you believe that our country – our world – is in trouble?  We have access to the throne room of the Only One Who can do anything – about our sin and the society we now live in.  Are you in a habit of regularly praying at home?

            Fifth, the Lord will enter the courtroom and bear witness against the society that rejects God.

            Here, the Lord witnesses against the leaders of the people who have stolen from the poor and abused them – listen to the horror-movie language:

“The LORD has taken his place to contend; he stands to judge peoples. The LORD will enter into judgment with the elders and princes of his people: ‘It is you who have devoured the vineyard, the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor?’ declares the Lord GOD of hosts.”

God is against those who abuse the weak.  God has called us to love one another – especially in the Church – and to do whatever we can to meet the real needs of each other.  But what God sees in societies that reject Him are vultures who pick the last trinkets off the dying soul lying by the road or in the gutter.  What God sees is a lack of care for the most vulnerable in society, rather, the strong and the powerful grab them from the vineyard of God – and we may remember that God commanded that Israel leave some of the crops in the field to support the poor – rather, the poor are grabbed and their faces are ground in the vineyard machinery – and God is outraged.

It takes wisdom to know who is really in need and how to best serve them, but having the weak and the suffering among us is not an opportunity for us to take what little they have left.

I know a woman who is impoverished, and she got word that she won a new car in a Jamaican raffle – all she had to do was pay the shipping, the taxes, the import fees, etc. – and some person stole thousands and thousands of dollars from a desperate woman.  These things ought not be – and the Lord will avenge.

Next, the Lord witnesses to the pride and immodesty of the women of Judah.

“The LORD said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with their eyes, mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet, therefore the Lord will strike with a scab the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will lay bare their secret parts. In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents; the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarves; the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets; the signet rings and nose rings; the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags; the mirrors, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils.  Instead of perfume there will be rottenness; and instead of a belt, a rope; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a rich robe, a skirt of sackcloth; and branding instead of beauty. Your men shall fall by the sword and your mighty men in battle.  And her gates shall lament and mourn; empty, she shall sit on the ground. And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, ‘We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach.’”

Women – not just prostitutes – but many women were walking around, showing skin, wearing enticing clothes and jewelry, trying to entice men to commit sexual sins with them.  And the Lord is furious that they have traded their holiness and modesty for this flamboyant life of sin.

I was at a birthday party for someone some years ago now – not a young person – and her dress was so low cut, I had to keep looking away – avoiding looking directly at her during the party.  There is no need for that.  The exposing of our flesh is only to be between a married man and woman.  Women – and men – who “leave nothing to the imagination” – are tempters to lead us into sin.

If you have children or grandchildren, help them to learn what it is to dress appropriately.  It is not wrong to have nice clothes or to wear jewelry or to smell nice, but there is a point where looking pleasant crosses a line.  These are the people God is talking about here.  And He judges them and pronounces judgment:

These women of Judah will lose their hair and have their heads covered with scabs.  Their genitals will be forcibly exposed.  Their skin will rot.  They will lose their clothes and jewelry.  The men they chased after will be killed in war.  And the women will be so desperate – since, in that culture, the men owned the land and provided for the care of the women, including the continuation of their name through children – but there will be so few men left after Babylon strikes, that seven women will offer themselves to a single man – being willing to do all the work and support the man – if he would only let her bear his children, then she and her line would have security in the land.  What pitiful sorrow!

Have you ever heard of a woman – or a man – marrying for the sake of a security that he or she thought they could never have?  I counselled a man who thought if he got married, he would no longer desire certain sins.  He was wrong.

What a bleak picture of the society – the nation – that rejects God.  And yet we know that a remnant does return from Babylon.  The Lord if faithful. The land is resettled.  The nation is restored.  And the Savior is born to a virgin, a son of David, as the prophets foretold.

As we look around Irvington, the state of New Jersey, and the United States, what are we to do as we see the same rejection of God that we see in Judah over two thousand years ago?

First, be faithful and obey our God and Savior – strive for the holiness without which no one will be saved – as the author of Hebrews tells us.

Second, tell everyone that there is salvation in Jesus Alone.  Everyone is born in sin separated from God, but if you believe in the historic Person and work of Jesus and confess Him with your mouth, you will be saved.

And third, pray.  Pray for yourself.  Pray for our leaders.  Pray for our children.  Pray for their caregivers.  Pray for wisdom and guidance and the help of God the Holy Spirit.

Let us pray:

Almighty God, we hear the sins of Judah, and we are afraid, because they are our sins.  Lord, please forgive us.  Please help us to strive for holiness, to obey and be faithful as we witness to Your Son, our Savior, Jesus, and help us to be a people of prayer.  Send the Holy Spirit to make us uncomfortable until we have prayed and prayed by His Power and according to Your Will.  And Lord, have mercy upon us; do not give us what we deserve.  For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.